There are an increasing number of articles reporting novel fluorinated responsive (smart) agents, micelles, dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers being investigated as targets for 19F-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
James Knight (University of Alberta, Canada) and co-workers based at Cardiff University, UK, give a pertinent account of the latest developments in the field. Their review article also covers multimodal contrast agents containing 19F nuclei.
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Fluorinated contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging; a review of recent developments
James C. Knight, Peter G. Edwards and Stephen J. Paisey
RSC Adv., 2011, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1RA00627D, Review
A simplified representation of a micelle containing a hydrophobic core with a large population of fluorine nuclei. The incorporation of n-butyl acrylate (purple spheres) into the hydrophobic block via statistical copolymerisation has been shown by Peng et al. (Biomacromolecules, 2009, 374) to enable longer T2 relaxation times by lowering the glass transition temperature.
